Using Email Service as Data Storage – Not Good.

Posted by Robert Lane on with 0 Comment

More and more people are using their email application as a place to save all the data that is sent back and forth.  As IT gets more efficient and stronger people are moving faster.  It is easier to leave the files you received via email from your client in your mailbox than it is to take the time to move it to a more appropriate folder not in your email program.  Why is this a problem?  Suppose you lose your mail service or your email data file?  Many times, backup services don’t backup the email data file. So many companies realize after a problem that their email has not been backed up.

Here are some tips that can really help you:

  1. Make sure that you have a backup of your email. If your email is hosted somewhere, make sure that the hosting partner is backing up the data files, or, you ask if they have an add-on service that can do it. If not, there are third party solutions that you can engage to do it.
  2. As the emails come in, save all attachments to the respective client folders in My Documents, not folders created in Outlook or respective email solution. If you client sends you a file, make sure you take the extra minute to save that to their folder. If the name is not descriptive, change it to better explain what the file is. Trust me, in the long run you will be glad you did this.
  3. Make sure you are employing your Archive feature in your email program. This is another way of storing your emails but also, you can have your archive folder backed up. Archiving also keeps the inbox size down.
  4. Spend an extra second or two getting rid of junk mail as it comes in. Either click on Block or Send to Junk or simply delete the junk email.

These tips will help you reduce the junk in your email data file, create redundancy so that you can find the data in more than one place in the event of an emergency, and, help you find information such as client files better.

Hope this helps.

Robert Lane

For further information contact Robert Lane of ASE, Inc. @ 703-273-8388 ext. 111.  Robert.Lane@goaseinc.com; goaseinc-staging.coydhea2-liquidwebsites.com. ASE, Inc. is an IT Network Support Services & Consulting firm providing IT engineering and hosted & managed services in the Washington DC metropolitan area since 2000.

Emails That Hurt

Posted by Robert Lane on with 0 Comment

Network security is a difficult subject to manage because it covers so many aspects of the network that a company runs on. Users need to understand that they play a very important role. Your emails are a big focus of the bad guys out there. Today, emails come from so many different sources, many of which are just being sent to cause problems for you and your network. Here is a simple step that can really help your company. Remember, if you initiate a problem you as well as your network might be down slowing, even stopping, your productivity for a period of time forcing you to miss deadlines and in most cases costing the company a lot of money.

I see emails that say, “IT Support Request” or “Need IT Support” from senders I don’t recognize. I really want to open them but because of what I see in the field I know that I need to investigate it a bit more. Without opening it, right click on the email and choose “Message Options”. In the bottom part of the window that opens you will see “Internet Headers”. To the right you can scroll down until you see the “From” line, in other words, who sent it. Notice the email address. If you don’t like it, delete the email. You can open your browser and type in the domain name to see if it is a legitimate company. (example: From: Robert@abc123.com. Type in www.abc123.com) You can call them to see if that person exists. You can even ask for that person. If you are in any way unsure who this is or why they sent it then don’t open the email, delete it and then go to the Deleted Files folder and delete it permanently.

IT support professional in many cases can determine which user initiated a network problem and how. It is not uncommon for companies to fire the user because that person broke an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). Don’t be that person!

Trust me; this little step helps a lot.

Robert Lane
President/Owner
ASE, Inc.
Getting you ready for tomorrow today
703-273-8388 ext 111

 
ASE, Inc. is an IT technical support services and consulting firm in the Washington DC Metro area.  Since 2000 ASE has focused on providing full outsourced IT department services to small and medium businesses as well as providing senior level expertise designing, installing and managing complex networks as well as security consulting to very large entities in both commercial and federal markets.  Call ASE today – 703-273-8388.